TESTIMONIALS

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Lee on a series of demanding marketing projects. On each occasion, Lee has created unique campaigns using his original style of video and photography and never fails to execute the original brief given to him.”

“I have worked with Lee on various charitable projects that have required a great deal of tact and innovation. Lee has a warm personality that is ideal for working with specialist groups of all ages. His work speaks for itself and the projects we have worked on with us has been of great benefit.”

“Lee takes great photos and he’s one of the most creative personalities I have ever come across. He’s also a very nice person to have around. You don’t need me to tell you how talented he his, all you have do is look at his work.”

“The City of Milton Keynes (wotcha mean it’s not a city? Oh Yes It Is! The mere fact Her Majesty hasn’t cut a ribbon doesn’t make a jot of difference, you’ve only got to follow the signs to the “City” Centre to have the fact confirmed!) Now where was I? Oh yes, Milton Keynes was the last and by far the greatest of the British new towns, built to avoid the mistakes that blight the likes of Kirby, Basingstoke, Harrow and Reading. Planned and built by mavericks and visionaries, the heart and soul of Milton Keynes isn’t its buildings, or revolutionary grid road system, or the 26 million trees that were planted, or the many firsts (the first multiplex cinema, the first drive-through takeaway, the first purpose built Indian restaurant, etc etc). The thing that makes Milton Keynes unique is the pioneering spirit of the people, and their determination to rise above the forces that conspired against them, and still do! The siege mentality of a population who, for decades, were seen by the rest of the world as a joke – how wrong the detractors were. Milton Keynes is now the most profitable part of the country outside the City of London, with the lowest housing density of any urban area in Europe. On the edge of everything; Southern Arts based in Windsor, TV coming from either Norwich, Southampton or Birmingham, current town planning aligned to the needs of Kent, east midland utilities blah blah blah, the natives took a fatalistic approach to life, namely “stuff happens, we just get on with it”. Now, in 100,007 years time, after the volcano currently brewing underneath Willen lake eventually blows covering Milton Keynes in a trillion tons of molten ash, futuristic archeologists will be hard pushed to dig up any part of Milton Keynes to which Lee Scriven hasn’t made a difference.

Like just about everyone who meets him, my first introduction to Lee (AKA Scribbo) came with him giving me a ton of grief. It was at an arty farty collective meeting I’d called to consolidate the thriving music scene which the soho meejah industry was ignoring (so no change there then) – he was giving it all “okay, so you say you want to get something going in Milton Keynes, but you’re all talk!” When he challenged me to produce his band “Fictitious” at Micro Studios at the Mill in Stony. I accepted, was I crazy? It was a daunting task, as they were committed post punk apocalyptic herberts who were against everything. But I had a secret weapon… echo on the drums. He loved it, banging away, all dubbed up, and we’ve been top pals ever since. He is full on, fearless, never backing down actually, there was that one time… His early 80s band “Ha!” featured two drummers (his little brother, the numantronic Blair alongside motorcycle monster Soggy) an all singing/all dancing brass section and Lee singing (in sleeve note credit terms only) as well as banging lines of heavy duty percussion.

They were taking the heart of England by storm, but on the eve of their debut (and only) single, a bunch of Scandinavian glory boys released a classic hit along with a groundbreaking video called “Take On Me”. The band were A-ha, and Scribbo decided the chance of getting sued was too great to risk, so he renamed the band Huh, released the single in an atmosphere of compromise, and were never heard of again. I think that was the defining moment in Scribbo’s life, as for more than two decades he has taken the position of 99.9% just ain’t enough. When Scribbo calls, he means business. Funnily enough he used to call from his office, which was a hole in the road with a red and white tent over the top in a time before mobile phones, when he ruled BT. At the end of the 1980s Scribbo came up with the money hungry venture of Backbeat Records, giving me the opportunity to invest my life savings so over a dozen local bands could release their first, and for the most part only record. It was a character building time in our lives, and my favourite memory was turning up outside the legendary Abbey Road Studios in my beaten up Volvo, only to be challenged by the doorman asking if we were with Pink Floyd? We answered “no, we’re with Bitza’s band Illumini” and walked into the temple where four lads made the magic that shook the world.

He is the brains (sic) behind the biggest band (in every aspect imaginable) Milton Keynes has ever seen, The Blues Collective. Touring up and down the country, invading Paris once (Paris still hasn’t recovered) and recording the classic Hot Hits Volume 1. Even I’ve played stunt bass/guitar/keyboard with them a couple of dozen times. The band has stormed the Edinburgh festival many times, as did his production of Pete Townshend’s masterpiece: Tommy, which was followed by a sell out run at Stantonbury Theatre, culminating in a crazed finale at the Marquee club in Soho. He also wrote and staged a play about the inner workings of the music industry: Done It! which filled Madcap Theatre for almost a week.

As a no nonsense journalist, he has graced the pages of all the local rags, from the sadly demised MK Gazette, to launching the Go awards for the Citizen and gracing both the arts and football pages of the MK News, And that doesn’t include dozens of fanzines he’s put pen topoison, some of which he launched himself, in particular: Dowhatinmk and Moo. His first book: It’s Been Emotional, captured all the agony and elation of the first season of the mighty MK Dons and their fairy tale final game of the season with a Gareth Edds wonder goal that no-one in the capacity National Hockey Stadium will ever forget. He’s been married to Lorna for 100 years, they met behind the bike shed at Leon school in the 1920’s, they have two beautiful daughters Sally and Fay, who take after their Mum, and a succession of dogs who take after Lee.”